The Foundation - Part 2

Only our basement is constructed out of ICFs. (Main and upper floors are wood framed.) Our basement ceilings will be approximately 9 feet high. So, what you see below is close to the full height of the basement. Then, imagine that this will be underground once we back fill around it.

In one of the back corners (below), we'll have what is called a 'partial walk-out'. This means we will have tall windows that are above ground.

A close up of the 'webbing' inside the ICFs. As they are being assembled, rebar is placed horizontally at various levels. When all the blocks are assembled, rebar is placed vertically inside the full height of the blocks before they are filled with concrete.

The next two photos show the brick ledge which will hold up the stone on the exterior of the house. Where it is on an angle, the ground will be sloped downwards to the tall rear windows.

The ICFs are just about ready to be filled with concrete.

Every night Josh and I sneak into the 'house' to see how it looks from the inside and imagine what it will feel like to live in it. And to measure every window and ensure everything is centred. OK - that's me, not Josh. As he holds the end of the tape measure, he asks, 'Are we really going to beat this dead horse again?" The ICF crew has everything within an inch. Impressive.

The concrete trucks arrive. Once they start filling, they can't stop until the ICFs and forms are full so we had five trucks lined up on the farm.

The pumper truck receives the concrete and feeds it out the hose into the ICFs.

Filling the ICFs with concrete.

The forms for the screened porch foundation. The screened porch won't have a basement and will have a traditional poured concrete foundations.

ICFs and forms filled with conrete.

Next the waterproofing is applied. It basically looks like really sticky wallpaper that is overlaped all around the ICFs.

This is how it looks today and gives a reference point for where the new house is compared to the old house.

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I am the unexpected farm dweller.
When I first visited this farm, I thought my husband was joking. A month later we moved into the dilapidated original farm house. And since that day eight years ago, we've been planning and now building this new home.
Building Walnut Farm is the record of this process: making this farm in Port Perry, Ontario our home.